A 22-year-old man entered a not guilty plea Wednesday morning to an indictment charging him with a single count of murder for a fatal January shooting that followed a late-night confrontation.
Nathan Joan Arredondo, of Mission, is accused of shooting and killing 21-year-old Heriberto Gomez about 12:23 a.m. on Jan. 23 in an area south of Business 83 on Watson Road.
A Hidalgo County grand jury indicted him April 1.
When the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office responded to the call of shots fired, deputies found a man and a woman transporting Gomez, who had a gunshot wound to his lower abdomen, to the hospital, according to a news release.
Deputies performed CPR on Gomez until Palmview EMS made it to the scene and transported the man to McAllen Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
According to a probable cause affidavit for Nathan Arredondo’s arrest, Gomez punched his father, Jose Guadalupe Arredondo, knocking him down.
During Wednesday’s video-conferencing hearing, one of Nathan Arredondo’s attorneys, Andres Ramos, told 398th state District Judge Keno Vasquez that the elder Arredondo suffered a brain injury and spent several days in the hospital.
According to Ramos, Gomez almost killed him.
Ramos said the fatal confrontation occurred in front of Nathan Arredondo’s house and indicated Gomez and the Arredondo’s lived near each other. The attorney also said the group Gomez was in was also armed.
While the probable cause affidavit doesn’t disclose what the confrontation was about, Ramos did say the incident started after a truck began peeling out in front of Nathan Arredondo’s house.
Alexis Darrel Garcia, a witness, told deputies that he and Gomez were in a confrontation with the Arredondo’s and said Nathan Arredondo was armed with a rifle, according to the affidavit.
“Alexis stated that Heriberto and Jose got into a fist fight and Heriberto knocked Jose down with a punch. Alexis stated that Nathan then shot at Heriberto, striking him in the abdomen,” the affidavit stated.
Gomez’s wife corroborated Garcia’s statement, according to the investigators.
After the shooting, investigators say Nathan Arredondo fled the scene.
The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office arrested him at about 4:20 a.m. that morning at the Sarita checkpoint.
“While attempting to pass the checkpoint, Border Patrol agents stopped him, ran a check, and found he came back as a person on a BOLO (be on the lookout notification) for the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office. Hidalgo County Investigators picked up Nathan from the Sarita Checkpoint and transported him to the Hidalgo County Detention Center, where he was booked in on murder charges,” the news release stated.
During Wednesday’s bond reduction arguments, Assistant District Attorney Michelle Puig told the judge that Border Patrol stopped Nathan Arredondo after a drug-sniffing dog alerted to narcotics, which turned out to be a legal CBD product.
CBD is a non-intoxicating part of marijuana that is legal and is marketed for a variety of uses.
Puig said agents at the checkpoint described Nathan as nervous and said authorities discovered $8,000 in cash in his vehicle, which was evidence of him being a flight risk.
However, Ramos, the attorney, had another explanation for the large amount of cash and his client’s flight.
“He got the heck out of here for his own safety,” Ramos said.
The attorney said Nathan Arredondo feared for his life because of the confrontation and the prosecutor told the judge that both families have a lot of animosity toward each other.
However, Ramos said the Arredondos are doing everything they can to avoid the other family, including selling their home where the fatal shooting occurred and moving to a completely new city.
Ramos also told the judge that the 22-year-old is not a flight risk or danger to the community.
In arguing against reducing his $1 million bond, Puig also cited what she called increasingly violent behavior, starting with allegations that he broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home in December 2019 and assaulted her mother, followed by another assault charge in July 2020.
“And then it elevates to murder,” Puig said, arguing that he is a danger to the community.
Vasquez, the judge, however, found the $1 million to be oppressive because the family had been unable to raise the funds and because bail cannot be used as a form of punishment.
While noting that it was not easy for him, Vasquez reduced the bond to $500,000.
